


Touch Me, Don't Touch Me

by drainbamage954 (cats_cradle6766)



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Bath Houses, Dehydration, Fluff, M/M, Massage, heat exhaustion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-13
Updated: 2012-10-13
Packaged: 2018-09-11 10:35:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8976223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cats_cradle6766/pseuds/drainbamage954
Summary: Baekhyun doesn't like being touched. At least, he's pretty sure he doesn't like being touched. Right?





	

Touching is something that some people enjoy. Hugging, holding hands, having a reassuring arm around the shoulders, some form of physical contact just soothing to the system and putting that body at ease. A light brush of fingers across the back of the hand delivering a sigh of relief because contact is necessary for survival. Some people demand it of their relationships with others. It is a foundation laid down upon introduction. 

If you know me, there will be touching. No questions asked. 

Park Chanyeol is one of these people. 

Byun Baekhyun is not. He will allow it, in some cases hugs and hand shakes and shoulder pats are acceptable, but he does not bodily fling himself at others and drape himself over them as Chanyeol does. Actually, he doesn’t think anyone instigates the degree of physical contact that is considered ‘normal’ by Chanyeol. 

Which is why he is currently scowling at his best friend.

“No,” Baekhyun says flatly as Chanyeol pouts drastically.

“Oh come on, Bacon, please?” Chanyeol stomps his feet slightly, nudging Baekhyun with his elbow. “I really want to get the spa package.”

“Then get it!” Baekhyun says, shoving back and shaking his bangs from his face. “I’m not stopping you from getting a full rub down from a stranger.”

Chanyeol’s pout deepens. “You promised we would spend my birthday at a spa and do all the jimjilbang things together.”

“Not all the-“ Baekhyun begins but Chanyeol holds up a finger imperiously. 

“And I quote: ‘Whatever you want, Channie. It’s your birthday, and I owe you.’ I can pull out the phone recording if you want.” Chanyeol is grinning devilishly. 

“You actually recorded that?” Baekhyun asks incredulously. Though, then again, this is Chanyeol. 

“I have to have some way of remembering you,” Chanyeol shrugs. “I barely see you anymore.”

“I saw you twice last week,” Baekhyun dead pans.

“See! We used to hang out every night!” Chanyeol exclaims. 

“We were roommates then!”

“I miss you!” Chanyeol howls and the entire staff of the jimjilbang present turn to look at them with varying levels of raised eyebrows. “Please, Baekhyunnie, for me? We never get to do this stuff together anymore.” Chanyeol pokes him repeatedly in the side as if this will help convince him getting a massage is a good idea. “I’ll hold your hand the whole time if you need me to.”

“It’s expensive,” Baekhyun points out, feeling his resolve crumble. He hates people touching him, but maybe…

“I’ll pay for yours,” Chanyeol says shrugging.

“How does that make any sense?” Baekhyun demands, giving Chanyeol a pointed look. He’s supposed to be treating Chanyeol, not the other way around. 

“Because that will be my birthday present to myself,” Chanyeol says, flashing a winning smile as his right eye crinkles into oblivion. “Plus, then you really have to get me an awesome Christmas present.”

“Chanyeol-“

“Baekhyunnie~” Chanyeol whines and grabs both of his hands, shaking them vigorously. “Get a massage with me~ It will be fun!”

Baekhyun hates his resolve as he stands with Chanyeol at the dimly lit entrance to the massage rooms, scanning his wrist ban over the monitor and checking in for their appointment. “I’m going to regret this,” he says under his breathe to Chanyeol, who snorts loudly and wraps an arm around his back and smushes him into his side vigorously. 

There is a slight cough to their right and Baekhyun turns to see a very tall man (which is an interesting observation, because Chanyeol is a giant) with a severe expression watching them with a raised eyebrow. 

“Hi!” Chanyeol says brightly and loud enough to wake up everyone in the room. “What’s your name?”

The man with the severe face’s eyebrow goes up a little higher and his mouth does something Baekhyun can’t quite identify. “Kris,” the man says and gestures slightly. “If you’ll follow me, we’re ready for you.”

“Cool!” Chanyeol chirps, bouncing on the balls of his feet after the man and dragging Baekhyun with him. “Are you going to give us the massage?”

Kris looks at him with that same raised eyebrow look. “I can only massage one of you,” he says and his tone is hard to read, a slight accent coloring his words, though Baekhyun thinks maybe it’s amused. 

“You should give me a massage,” Chanyeol says, striding into the massage room and earning a look from the woman already there, currently kneading an older man’s shoulder blades. Chanyeol flashes her a lopsided smile. 

“I should?” Kris says as he moves near one of the massage tables and offers a basket to Baekhyun and Chanyeol each for their belongings. 

“Yeah,” Chanyeol says as Baekhyun takes off his wrist band and drops it into the basket. “You look like you’d give an intense massage.”

“Oh?” Kris looks amused. Maybe. He gestures to the two side by side massage tables and Baekhyun assumes these are theirs. He eyes his own bed with apprehension. 

“Yeah,” Chanyeol says as he clambers onto his massage bed and props himself up on his elbows so he can look up at Kris. “Your face is intense. I bet your hands are like meat tenderizers.” Baekhyun looks at his best friend with his own eyebrows raised. Kris’ mouth quirks. 

“Your face goes there,” Kris says, pointing to the hole in the table surrounded by a cushion. “Lie down.”

“See, super intense,” Chanyeol says, flashing another grin before he flops down. “And commanding. I like you.” He flaps his arms on the bed. “Have at my body, Kris!”

Baekhyun remembers why he sometimes simultaneously hates and loves Chanyeol so much. Because he sparks the urge to both laugh helplessly and beat your face into a wall at the same time. 

Kris, however, turns to Baekhyun and gives him a smile, which has Baekhyun staring slightly. “You should lie down too,” he tells him, gesturing to the bed. “Your masseuse will be here in a second.”

Baekhyun doesn’t say anything, just nods and feels a lump in his throat as he climbs onto his own bed. Shifting around slightly and feeling apprehensive. He doesn’t like to be touched, he doesn’t like to be touched, he doesn’t- 

The gentle hand suddenly between his shoulder blades has Baekhyun jumping and jerking to the side in shock. Head snapping up he gets a brief vision of a tall, dark figure with shrouded eyes and midnight black hair before a tender hand is pushing his head towards the table and a soft voice is telling him in a exotic twang “please lie down and relax.” Baekhyun gets a brief flash of thin but distinctively male legs before he is staring at the floor under the table and the face he just saw flashes through his mind along with the thought ‘Holy Death, I’m about to be massaged by a serial killer.’

Tense doesn't even begin to describe the feeling across Baekhyun’s body as he waits for the press of hands against his skin. Against his back, shoulders, neck. If there is one place Baekhyun can’t stand people touching, it is his neck. He jumps slightly when hands gently press into his shoulders and they pause, waiting for a moment before the begin to press deeper, kneading into tissue and muscle and Baekhyun clenches his teeth, trying to relax and finding it extremely difficult. 

“Are you okay?” that soft low voice asks surprisingly close to his ear and Baekhyun jumps slightly. Face flushing, Baekhyun vaguely realizes he’s being a bit ridiculous. 

“Fine,” he says, and his voice is scratchy. He clears his throat and closes his eyes. “I’m fine, I just don’t usually have people touching me.”

The hands knead a little more gently, traveling over his shoulders and digging into pressure points. “I’ll try to be gentle then,” the voice says and Baekhyun shivers for a different reason than the hands against him. Breathing deeply through his nose, he closes his eyes and tries to relax. The hands on his shoulders travel out, grading towards his arms before shifting slightly down and coming back to meet at his spine, pressing into muscle and against bone and easing the tight muscles. Then they travel up and Baekhyun tries not to recoil as they press into the back of his neck. They pause. 

“Okay?” the soft voice asks, brushing against his ear and Baekhyun sighs, air rushing through his nose. 

“My neck is really sensitive,” he mumbles and feels his face flush again as his fingers clench in the edge of the table above his head. He hates people touching his neck. 

“I’ll be gentle.” The fingers go back to his neck, pressingly gently and slowly as Baekhyun tries to keep from jerking away. The hands don’t linger, instead traveling swiftly up vertebrae by vertebrae until fingers dig into his hair, scratching slightly as they knead into his scalp and Baekhyun nearly purrs. Beside him, Baekhyun hears Chanyeol moan and suppresses a laugh. “Okay?” the voice say and Baekhyun hums. The fingers dig deeper into his hair and drag through the still slightly damp strands. 

This is acceptable. 

Then those hands move down, briefly pressing into his neck before they travel back over his shoulders, drifting to the left side and dragging down his arm, kneading muscle and skin and Baekhyun finds himself actually relaxing, a smile of contentment spreading over his mouth as they knead his hands. 

It actually feels really nice. 

His left hand is dropped and there is a brief moment before Baekhyun feels the press against his right shoulder, hands repeating the same process as had been given to the left and Baekhyun thinks he may just get used to this when those hands come up and begin to work his shoulder blades and suddenly the gentle press is just a bit harsher, digging a grimace from him as he hears a low whine from Chanyeol. He briefly thinks that Chanyeol is probably incapable of silence before his mouth opens in a gasp as those hands suddenly dig into the soft tissue of his lower back and it’s actually painful. 

That hands pause. “Okay?” soft and edging with concern, the voice floats against Baekhyun’s ear. 

“Just a little intense,” Baekhyun admits gruffly to the floor and grimaces as the hands continue, pressing into his back deep and hard, hitting stiff flesh as they travel down his back. 

“Tell if it hurts,” the voice says before drawing away. Baekhyun grits his teeth as the hands drag down his spine and he flinches as they press harder. They pause. “Hurt?” Baekhyun says nothing. Just closes his eyes. The hands begin again, slightly less torturous this time and Baekhyun lets out a long breath. What appears to be an intense deep tissue spine massage lasts what seems like forever before the hands softly glide down his back and begin to pull the muscles there with practiced movement. 

Baekhyun is just relaxing, letting the press of hands, now familiar, lull him back as close as he can get to ease before they suddenly slip lower, eliciting a slight crease in his forehead. _They can’t be going-_ Baekhyun starts to think before he gasps and stills, the hands suddenly having drifted down so that they are gripping and massaging his butt and it is ticklish and strange and embarrassing.

The last time someone groped Baekhyun’s ass they found themselves doubled on the floor, hands cupping their groin, and Baekhyun fuming over them and thanking himself that he has such good reflexes. 

And now, he is lying on a massage table, prostrate and in jimjilbang clothing, and some stranger who looks like they could kill him in a second with hands that punish as much as they reward, is giving his ass more attention that it’s ever had in one sitting. Baekhyun is pretty sure his face is a brilliant scarlet as he bites his lip, trying to keep from tensing or squirming or _anything_ because this should not be arousing. 

But, well, it kinda is. 

Chanyeol suddenly lets out a low groan and Baekhyun’s face colors further. Well, at least he’s not the only one. 

Those hands seem to linger forever on his backside and Baekhyun is now finding the bed significantly less comfortable as he clenches and unclenches his hands because having someone massaging your butt, however pleasant it is, makes his mind goes places it really shouldn’t. He remembers the brief flash of a young face and thin but sturdy legs and closes his eyes. 

Goddamn Park Chanyeol and his horrible birthday ideas. 

Finally, after what seems like eons of ass worship, those hands travel, the gentlest they’ve been yet, up his back and briefly knead his shoulders before once more trailing down his arms and pressing into his hands before there is a soft touch to his left shoulder and that voice is murmuring, almost breathing, into his ear “Sorry, but could you turn over?”

Baekhyun’s eyes flash open and he stares, not remembering them closing and lifts his head. The hand drops from his shoulder, dragging over the fabric of his jimjilbang shirt as Baekhyun pushes himself up, head raising as he finally gets a good look at the man who has been massaging (abusing, his mind suppliments) him for the past thirty minutes. 

He’s tall, that the first thing Baekhyun notes, as the other man looks down at him with a curiously evaluating expression. He’s wearing all black, a tight tee shirt over a toned upper body and black shorts, reaching just above his knees. His skin is slightly tan, smooth as it stretches over toned muscles and Baekhyun’s eyes finally raise to the face, which, at a glance looks like it could kill him, but now looks much softer. The killing effect is primarily because his eyes are accented by dark shadows and the straight line of his nose suggests serious consequence under dark midnight hair. 

Baekhyun doesn’t realize he’s staring until the dark man blinks and shifts towards him, a slight crease in his forehead. “Turn?” he says and Baekhyun starts, fumbling slightly as he tries to turn over and when he looks back up the masseuse is smiling, probably in amusement, and Baekhyun feels heat crawl over his face. He lies back and tries to keep his face under control as he resists the urge to fidget horribly. He knows his hair is sticking up everywhere and glances over at Chanyeol. 

His best friend is currently still face down on the massage bed and looks like pudding, long limbs limp as Kris works with a soft concentrated look on his face on Chanyeol’s shoulders. His almond shaped eyes flicker up to Baekhyun and he offers a small smile which has Baekhyun looking away swiftly. He doesn’t know why, but he feels like he’s intruding. 

The feather touch of fingers against the side of his face has Baekhyun jumping slightly as they turn his head. “It’s okay,” his dark masseuse says and Baekhyun looks up. A smile flashes down at him and Baekhyun swallows. If he has to do the next part of the massage with his eyes open…

He is simultaneously hating and loving Chanyeol again. 

The fingers against his face press gently into his skin and Baekhyun slams his eyes shut, cutting off everything as picture is replaced by the dull red of his eyelids. Gently drawing lines out and circling back in, the fingers travel over his face the softest they have been yet and Baekhyun digs his fingers into the sheet covering the bed. After a bit, they draw away and Baekhyun cracks his eyes open for a moment. 

“Wait a moment,” the soft voice says from behind him. “I’m putting a face mask on.”

“What?” Baekhyun says, feeling suddenly confused and craning to look at the man just out of sight. 

The dark masseuse gives a small sound as Baekhyun manages to get a glimpse of him. He’s frowning and looking perplexed. “I mean, I’m putting a face mask on you,” he clarifies. “Sorry.” He smiles sheepishly and Baekhyun swallows.

“No worries,” Baekhyun manages to say. Beside him, he hears Kris softly tell Chanyeol to turn over and his friend responds with a long groan. Chanyeol doesn’t move and Kris makes a small sound through his nose. 

“Close your eyes,” the voice says and Baekhyun obeys, feeling the cold drag of a familiar face mask draping onto his skin and flinches slightly at the cold. Feather soft fingers smooth the cool facial pack over his face, gently gliding over his skin and Baekhyun sighs gently as they seem to smooth away the tension he’s been holding since he got here. 

Okay, so maybe Baekhyun doesn't entirely hate Chanyeol. 

Just when Baekhyun is beginning to truly relax, the fingers drag from his face and drop down to his collarbones, gently pressing and pulling the tissue before moving to his right arm, traveling down with firm presses and digs into the strong muscle before once more cradling his hands. Baekhyun vaguely realizes his masseuse has larger hands than his own. Though that’s not entirely surprising, because Baekhyun does have small delicate hands. 

Then his hands are dropped and Baekhyun can sense more than hear the other man drift down and is less surprised than he expects when he feels hands drop to his ankles and begin to travel up his calves, pressing into muscle and Baekhyun sighs. As much as Baekhyun doesn’t like being touched, he’s actually beginning to enjoy this. The firm yet gentle travel of hands over his body, lingering on skin and easing his hard lines as they dig into pressure points and release tension he didn’t entirely know he had. 

The hands change to his other leg and press into his ankles and Baekhyun hears Chanyeol groan beside him and resists doing the same himself. Then the hands leave and a towel is draped over one leg and Baekhyun wonders what is happening and then hands, slick with something, are massaging his feet and it’s just as delicious as it is strange to have someone touching your feet. Baekhyun lets out a vocally enhanced sigh before he realizes it and is extremely glad he is wearing a face mask as his cheeks color. 

It seems like forever that his feet are being pressed and prodded and soothed with hands that hold as well as fade into nothing. Baekhyun doesn’t remember when feet changed but he swims back from the recesses of his mind when the hands massage back up his legs and knead into once tight muscle before traveling further up and suddenly Baekhyun realized how high those hands really are when they feel hot against his mid thigh and seem to be intent on going even higher. 

Breath picks up without permission and Baekhyun’s stomach gives an involuntary jerk upwards as those hands press towards his pelvis. Baekhyun briefly wonders if all massages are supposed to be this personal before he remembers those same hands pressing into his ass and then goes momentarily brain dead as fingers press into the hollow of his hip bones and he lets out an involuntary gasp. 

It would be really inappropriate to get aroused, wouldn’t it? 

Probably. 

Chanyeol suddenly lets out a very loud gasp followed by a grunt. Well, at least Baekhyun’s not the only one possibly having these problems. 

“Okay?” the voice asks from his right shoulder and Baekhyun barely rasps out a “fine” before he snaps his mouth closed to keep from groaning as those fingers dig deeper into him. 

Massages take a lot of resolve. 

Baekhyun imagines that maybe this is over when the hands have finished with his other leg and thigh and _pelvic area_ and allows himself to relax slightly before tensing against as fingers glide over his stomach and he jumps. “Bad?” 

“Ticklish,” Baekhyun mumbles and hopes that is explanation enough because his skin feels too hot right now. The hands resume their movements and drag over his abdomen, pulling at the abdominal muscles he tries to define daily. They dig down, once more, and Baekhyun swallows thickly because, well, that’s not a place that usually gets touched casually. 

Baekhyun barely bites back a moan, trying to keep his body from responding as it normally would when someone grazes fingers along his hip bones, when those hands finally pull away and he hears the other man standing up and moving away. Hands once more come to rest on his ankles and he cracks his eyes open, his body obeying without much protest as he observes the other man pushing first his left leg to bend, once against his stomach (which is totally appropriate) and then across the right, making his back pop a few times, before repeating the same process with the other. The dark masseuse smiles at him, walking silently up to him and letting his fingers brush up Baekhyun’s collarbones before gently peeling the face mask away and massaging the remaining gel into his skin soothingly. 

“Good?” that soft voice asks and Baekhyun, eyes once more having fallen closed, hums. Because, despite a lot of the pain and how he’s pretty sure his spine has been rearranged, he didn’t actually want to crawl out of his skin most of the time. “Finished.” Fingers drag almost regretfully from his face and Baekhyun’s eyes flutter open.

With a groan, Baekhyun pushes himself from the bed on curiously weak arms. Beside him, Kris is bending Chanyeol’s abnormally long legs and Baekhyun turns to the man who had just been touching him for a good hour an a half. “Thanks,” he says, feeling extremely unintelligent. 

“Did you enjoy it?” the masseuse asks, his eyes widening slightly and looking hopeful. Baekhyun doesn’t trust himself to speak, and instead just nods as he sits up, swinging his legs over the side of the table. 

Baekhyun doesn’t know if he’s supposed to make small talk. I mean, what are you supposed to do as you wait for your friend to finish being manhandled by a tall and extremely attractive masseuse as your own extremely attractive masseuse watches you in apprehensive curiosity and has really nice collarbones poking from a shirt with an abnormally low neckline? He fidgets for a moment before saying “I’ll just, um, wait outside I guess,” before he’s pushing himself off the bed, grabbing his things, and falling over himself slightly as he makes towards the waiting room. He sits down on the couch provided there and absently draws the electronic wrist band back on, glancing around. 

The man behind the waiting desk with hair falling attractively over the right side of his face, looks up with a curious glint in his chocolate eyes before flashing a bright smile at Baekhyun, a distinct dimple pressing into his cheek. Baekhyun smiles awkwardly back.

A groan from his left makes Baekhyun turn to see Chanyeol shuffling from the massage room, arms stretched over head as he rolls his head, a pleased smile on his face. “I feel like I’ve been reborn,” he says, deep voice sliding out of his mouth with a pleasured purr. “Kris, can I have your monster hands?”

“Just my hands?” Kris asks, and Baekhyun does a slight double take.

Chanyeol apparently does also, as he blinks at Kris before splitting his face in a grin. “Actually, I’ll just have you instead. Want to move in with me and just give me massages all the time?”

“Tempting,” Kris says, and his mouth quirks as Chanyeol blatantly leers before finally turning to Baekhyun. 

“Hey Bacon, did you get all jellied up?” 

“That’s one way of putting it,” Baekhyun says, feeling both tense and relaxed at the same time. He shifts and it’s weird to actually feel his vertebrae sliding against each other. “Thanks for the massage,” he adds and flashes a bright grin as his own masseuse comes up behind Kris and watches them, his almost black eyes focused on Baekhyun. Kris bows and the dark man waves, smiling brightly. Baekhyun grabs Chanyeol’s hand and drags him from the room before he can further try to awkwardly be suggestive. 

He’s groaned enough already. 

“Hey!” Chanyeol protests, as Baekhyun has dragged him almost to the snack bar. “I wasn’t done talking yet.”

“I was,” Baekhyun says, and tries to calm his breathing. That and his oddly racing heart. “And I hate you.”

Chanyeol’s face falls and Baekhyun squirms. “Why?” he asks, looking disheartened. “Did you really hate it that much?”

“You know I hate being touched,” Baekhyun says, shifting as he tries to rationalize the odd pull of his muscles and the lingering feeling of hands. “And I’m pretty sure that was less of a massage as a body pummeling.”

Chanyeol’s eyes widen. “It’s not supposed to hurt that much,” he says, sounding slightly concerned. 

“Yeah, well, I feel like Jongin and Sehun just had a dance party on me,” Baekhyun snaps and rolls his head irritably. Really, it wasn’t so bad, but Hell was is awkward. And his… everything dos hurt. 

“You should have said something, it's not supposed to be that painful.” The soft voice from earlier has Baekhyun spinning around in surprise, his face draining of color as he recognizes the face of his masseuse, standing just a meter behind him with a concerned look on his face as he surveys Baekhyun. “I’m really sorry, I didn’t know I was hurting you.” Baekhyun wants to just sit down, cover his ears with his hands, and start singing DBSK really loudly. Just makes this nightmare stop. “Is there any way I can help? Maybe get an ice pack? Or a hot pack?” 

Kris comes up behind Baekhyun’s dark masseuse and lays a hand on his shoulder. “Calm down, Tao,” he says in his low voice as he also looks at Baekhyun with what is probably concern. “Is it really that bad?” Baekhyun has lost the ability to talk. “I’m really sorry. Tao used to do martial arts before he trained to be a masseuse. He can be a little intense. I should have asked when you came in. It might have been better if you’d been my client.”

“But then you wouldn’t have given me a massage,” Chanyeol pouts besides Baekhyun and Baekhyun resists the urge to stomp on his foot. 

“You’re friend is in pain,” Baekhyun’s masseuse, Tao says and looks flabbergasted at Chanyeol before turning back to Baekhyun. “Seriously, do you need anything? Is there any way I can help?”

There is a large bubble of panic in Baekhyun’s throat at this point and his animal instincts of fight or flight are rising significantly. Which is why, against his usually rational brain, he basically yells “Nope!” in a slightly strangled voice before bolting towards the nearest sauna, wrenching open the door, and diving inside. 

Baekhyun notices two things. 

First, he’s hyperventilating slightly and sudden exertion on a freshly massaged body is not necessarily the best thing in the world. 

Secondly, he’s just flung himself into the hottest sauna in the entire jimjilbang and the slightly suffocating heat is already making his skin crawl. 

Baekhyun looks around. The room is domed, like a planetarium but about a bajillion degrees hotter, and, looking at the door and weighing his choices, Baekhyun thinks maybe he should just wait here for a safe amount of time and pray that the horror of his current massage situation disappears before he gets heat stroke. 

Baekhyun stares at the walls. He stares at the floor, covered in woven straw mats. He stares at the ceiling and then at the door. He repeats this process three times as he tries to calm his heart and breathing. He is relatively successful. 

Then the door opens. 

And Chanyeol tumbles in. He flashes Baekhyun a grin and Baekhyun pushes him over with his foot. Chanyeol lets out a soft ‘oof’ as he falls backwards before he rolls back and pouts at Baekhyun. “What did you run away for, they were only trying to be nice. I mean, that Tao guy supposedly broke your everything right?”

“Go back to your flirting, you gangly monkey,” Baekhyun tells Chanyeol as the taller puffs out his cheeks. “See if you can seduce Kris with that fluffy hair of yours.”

Chanyeol shakes his head and his hair bounces like a dandelion. “It’s magnificent and don’t you forget it,” he says before turning to grin idiotically at Baekhyun. Then his face shifts into concerned seriousness. “But seriously, come back out. You’re going to die if you stay in this room. I feel like I just stepped onto the surface of the sun.”

“You’d die before you ever reached the surface of the sun. Burn up probably by Mercury actually,” Baekhyun tells Chanyeol and earns a roll of eyes. 

“Just come out,” Chanyeol repeats and wipes his already sweating brow. Baekhyun can feel his own sweat dripping down his back and, as much as he despises the feeling, ignores it. “You can’t stay in here forever and it’s deathly hot.”

“I, for one, and extremely comfortable here,” Baekhyun lies through his teeth, his mind on Tao, the masseuse with nice eyes and hands that burn and a voice that is rough and soft and Baekhyun now just feels hotter. “You go out if you find it so unpleasant.”

Chanyeol frowns at him. “I’m coming back in five minutes,” he tells Baekhyun before stooping low and opening the door, disappearing from the room and leaving Baekhyun to look at the wall and frown as sweat drips down his neck. He groans and drags a hand down face, grimacing as it smears through perspiration and catches the residue from the face mask over his skin. 

So, the massage hadn’t been that bad. Really, it was surprisingly nice, aside from the fact that Baekhyun still doesn’t like to be touched and was tensing through most of it, but it hadn’t been too bad. Baekhyun lets his mind wander, rolling his slightly looser shoulders and letting the heat sink into his bones. Now that he’s been in here, it’s not so bad. He can almost breathe without his lungs feeling hot. 

Letting himself fall to the side, Baekhyun sprawls out sideways on the woven reed matts, looking up at the ceiling and frowning slightly. Maybe he’s over exaggerating. Maybe he should get used to people touching him more. Maybe he needs to get out more. Maybe he needs more friends than just Chanyeol and Kyungsoo in his life. Sehun and Jongin don’t really count because they’re far more trouble than they’re worth. Well, maybe not, but Baekhyun likes to feel superior. 

Maybe Baekhyun does need to get out more. Maybe he should go on some blind dates. Maybe this room is kinda hot, considering his shirt is sticking to him and he has to breathe through is mouth. Maybe he should take off his socks. 

Maybe Chanyeol will ask Kris the serious masseuse to massage him again. 

Maybe Chanyeol will ask Kris the serious masseuse to give him a back rub in the baths.

Maybe Tao with the murder face masseuse but amazing hands will offer to give Baekhyun a back rub in the baths.

Maybe Tao with the murder face masseuse but amazing hands has panda ancestry. 

Maybe ghosts do exist. 

Baekhyun briefly wonders when the room filled with fireflies as a smile spreads over his face and he makes vague grabbing motions with his hands at them, not really noticing how his breathes are heavy and his pulse pounds in his ears. The door opens and he recognizes Chanyeol’s face, which goes from searching to worried extremely fast and Baekhyun shouts out happily and stretches his arms towards his friend. “Yeolli! Come catch the bugs!”

“Time to go!” Chanyeol says loudly, his voice strangely distant, and shuffles over to Baekhyun, trying to scoop the smaller man into his arms and failing as Baekhyun flails, trying to stand and only succeeding in falling over himself, dissolving into crackly laughter. 

“Where’s gravity?” Baekhyun says as the world tilts dangerously and the fireflies multiply. He giggles and it resonates as if trapped in a box. 

“Seriously, Baekhyun, you need to get out of this room,” Chanyeol says, and his voice sounds really far away. 

“No,” Baekhyun says, trying to stomp a foot and instead kicking Chanyeol in the shin. “I’m fine.”

“Yeah?” Chanyeol says, and pulls away from trying to drag Baekhyun off the floor. “Stand up by yourself.”

Baekhyun tries, surging upwards onto unsteady legs and the world spins dangerously. He has a brief moment of rationality, the word “shit” passing through his lips before half the world fades into black spots and goes sideways. He’s vaguely aware of Chanyeol yelling his name and being dragged from the stifling heat, of cool stone under him rather than hot reed mats, of two more faces swimming above him next to Chanyeol’s fuzzy expression. He smiles as he takes Chanyeol’s face in his hands and presses the cheeks together. 

“Your face is funny,” Baekhyun says, a laugh breathing past his lips before the black spots multiply to total darkness. 

When Baekhyun wakes up, he’s significantly less hot, though no less sticky with sweat, and his back is pressed to cool linen rather than hard stone. He groans and his throat feels dry, his mouth like sand and his head pounds. He blinks, and everything is blurred. 

Dehydration isn’t good. 

“You’re awake,” a soft, now familiar, voice says and Baekhyun jerks to the side, trying to focus fuzzed vision on the figure seated a few feet from him. His head pounds in response to the rapid movement and the world spins slightly. He groans and brings up a hand to his head. The figure beside him moves closer, a hand coming to take his own and the strong fingers are familiar. “Hey, don’t move too much. You’re super dehydrated.”

“Where am I?” Baekhyun cracks out, his voice sounding as dry as it feels. 

“One of the empty massage rooms,” the voice answers, and it washes over Baekhyun pleasantly. “Here,” something is pressed against his lips. A straw. “You need to drink. “ Baekhyun, doesn't protest, just wraps his lips around the offered straw and drinks. He recognizes the taste of sikhye, eyes falling shut as the cool liquid fills his mouth and calms the desert that is his throat. The effect is almost immediate and he turns further, trying to drink more and makes a small sound of disappointment when the straw moves away. “Don’t drink it all at once,” the voice says and Baekhyun opens his eyes. His vision is still blurry. “It’s best if you drink slowly. Or else your body can’t absorb it.”

Baekhyun closes his eyes again and settles further into the massage table. His skin is still extremely sticky from dried sweat. “Don't you have to be working?”

Baekhyun hears the other, Tao, his mind supplies, shifting near him. “Actually, you were the last customer on my shift. Kris and I both only work mornings and afternoons.”

Baekhyun cracks open an eye. Nope, still blurry. “Then why are you still here?”

Baekhyun wishes he could see Tao’s expression because the other seems to be shifting even more. “Well, it was my fault you had such a bad massage, and I said I could keep an eye on you while Chanyeol and Kris try to find some medicine and…” he trails off and Baekhyun sees his fuzzy form fidgeting. 

Baekhyun clears his throat softly and tries to ignore the heat rising in his cheeks. “Can I have more of that sikhye?” he asks and feels his mouth twitch when Tao shoves it at his face, the straw poking him in the cheek as Tao fumbles an apology. Baekhyun tries not to smile too much around the straw, because, despite the fact that the man currently feeding him sikhye had an aura of serious professionalism when assaulting his back with his hands, he’s fumbling and oddly cute right now and Baekhyun sure that he’s still slightly delusional. Or dreaming, because this can’t actually be real. 

That must be it. He’s dreaming. 

“It’s not your fault,” Baekhyun says after another long sip of the sweet drink. “It’s Chanyeol’s fault for being persuasive and having ideas,” Baekhyun says, smiling around his straw. “Plus, it’s not every day I get to dehydrate myself and get cared for by a masseuse with magic hands.”

“Magic hands?” Tao repeats the words to him and Baekhyun takes another drink. 

“I don’t like when people touch me,” Baekhyun says, shifting so he’s lying on his side. Well, if he is dreaming, he might as well make the best of it. Maybe Tao will be naked in a moment and suddenly the room will be filled with chocolate. A few fireflies swim in and out of his vision. “But I don’t mind your hands. They must be magic. Are you from Hogwarts?”

“What’s Hogwarts?” Tao asks as he pulls away the drink. 

“I’m in an alternate reality where Harry Potter doesn’t exist,” Baekhyun says to himself and holds up a hand, trying to focus his eyes and only getting a blurry image of his hand. “Where are you from?”

Tao seems startled by the question. Baekhyun reaches out and grabs the drink, Tao’s hand with it, and draws it towards himself. Dreams are fun. “I’m originally from China. Kris and I moved here three years ago.”

“Are you married?” People get married to trees in dreams, for God’s sake. 

Tao starts at the question and the straw pokes Baekhyun hard in the mouth. 

It’s painful. 

Dreams are not painful. Therefore this is not a dream.

 _Oh shit_ goes Baekhyun’s brain and he freezes slightly. 

“No, we’re step brothers,” Tao answers and Baekhyun blinks a lot. His vision is still slightly blurry and his skin is sticky and he can hear his pulse pounding in his ears. “Drink more, I think you’re still delusional.”

Baekhyun swallows heavily. “Was I delusional before?” He doesn't want the answer.

“You kept grabbing at air and mumbling,” Tao tells him and Baekhyun’s entire face heats. “And you yipped about forty times. Chanyeol said that’s normal though.”

Baekhyun swallows again and tries to ignore the lump in his throat. At least the sikhye tastes good. Suddenly Tao leans forward and presses a hand flush against Baekhyun’s forehead, making the other draw back slightly at the touch. This is intimate.

“You’re not as hot as you were,” Tao says and seems relieved. “I’m glad we could get your body temperature down. It was scary there for a minute.” Baekhyun blinks again and this time his vision clears, though marginally. Tao is still holding onto the sikhye container, Baekhyun’s hand brushing against his fingers. Tao smiles. “I’m sorry about the massage. You really should have told me it hurt so much.”

“What man actually admits they’re in pain,” Baekhyun grumbles and Tao’s mouth quirks.

“The smart ones,” Kris says, walking in and followed by a widely grinning Chanyeol. 

“You sure look happy for someone who’s best friend is lying dying on a massage table,” Baekhyun says, looking at Chanyeol’s vibrant face. 

“Hey, you’re the one who basically barricaded themselves in the hottest sauna in the facility for thirty minutes until they were delirious,” Chanyeol says, shrugging. “Not my fault you’re an idiot.” Baekhyun frowns at him, pouting pointedly. Chanyeol just continues to grin at him. “Do you want some jelly?”

“Some what?” Baekhyun asks, wrinkling his lip at the word ‘jelly.’ 

“Athletic Jelly,” Kris clarifies, walking over and ripping the top off of one, shoving it in Baekhyun’s face. Baekhyun recoils slightly. “They help you rehydrate faster and restore the minerals and vitamins your body loses with excessive perspiration. Most major athletes use them and almost all marathon runners.” He shoves the jelly packet closer to Baekhyun’s face. 

“So you’re comparing my sitting in a sauna for thirty minutes to running a marathon?” Baekhyun asks, eyeing the slightly out of focus jelly packet warily. 

“Yes,” Kris deadpans and Baekhyun raises an eyebrow. Tao takes the jelly packet from Kris and looks at it for a second before ripping off the top and holding it towards Baekhyun. 

“You should at least try it,” Tao tells him, offering the packet a little less forcefully than Kris had. It’s more like he’s suggesting Baekhyun try it rather than giving him the options of ‘eat it or die’. 

Baekhyun looks between the jelly packet and Tao and Chanyeol and then repeats the cycle. “What if it’s actually poison?” he asks.

“Then you are clearly destined to die,” Chanyeol says, and shrugs. “Just eat it and stop being dehydrated and delirious. You were seeing things earlier. And as funny as that was, I have other plans.”

Baekhyun frowns at him. “What other plans?”

Chanyeol suddenly fidgets slightly, a goofy smile that screams ‘I’m guilty of things not worthy of feeling guilt over’ drags over his face. “Well, since you were basically out of commission, I kind of made plans to get food and do some jimjilbang things with…” he trails off and Baekhyun’s eyes widen slightly at the flush over his face and the hand awkwardly scratching at the back of his head. His eyes flash to Kris, who is watching Chanyeol with a steady look. 

“You’re shitting me,” Baekhyun deadpans and Chanyeol laughs like he’s possessed. 

“Feel better, Bacon!” Chanyeol says quickly before practically bolting from the room, dropping a bag, presumably full of these jellies, next to Tao. 

Tao looks up at Kris. “I will never understand your taste in men,” he says and Kris shrugs. 

“You don’t have to,” Kris says simply and follows Chanyeol out of the room with a definite upward turn to his mouth. 

Baekhyun turns back to look at Tao, who is watching him with his black eyes. Tao holds the jelly up. “Try it?” Baekhyun tries to sit up and winces slightly as his muscles protest angrily. He sits up anyway. “Wow, I really did hurt you,” Tao says and leans closer, his hands coming up swiftly the help Baekhyun sit up. 

“No, I’m okay,” Baekhyun half lies. He’s really not too bad, but it still hurts. “I can feed myself, you know,” he adds and tries to take the jelly from Tao, who still has a hand pressed against the small of his back. Baekhyun shivers and Tao shifts away slightly. 

“Sorry,” Tao says automatically and Baekhyun shakes his head. Tao still doesn’t give him the jelly. His hand does fall from his back though and Baekhyun finds he misses the contact. Tao smiles sheepishly and offers the jelly once more. Baekhyun looks at it for a moment, his eyes flickering up to Tao’s before he makes a split second decision and leans forward, lips wrapping around the offered packet and dragging the jelly into his mouth. He looks up and sees Tao’s eyes slightly wide in shock and light color spreading over his cheeks. 

The jelly isn’t really that bad, though it does essentially reek of chemicals and synthesized proteins. Not exactly Baekhyun’s first choice of food. He brings up a hand and takes the jelly packet from Tao’s stunned fingers and leans back slightly. 

“Not too bad,” Baekhyun says, trying to suppress his own facial flush as he pulls away. He turns to look at Tao and flashes a smile. Tao’s mouth twitches. “Thanks, for, you know, being nice and caring. Sorry for, well, dehydration.”

Tao’s mouth slides into a smile and Baekhyun fingers the jelly packet in his hands. “You should be apologizing to yourself for the dehydration. I can’t imagine you feel that great.” He hands Baekhyun the sikhye and Baekhyun automatically sticks the straw between his lips. 

Baekhyun takes a quick drink before looking down at himself, eyes settling on his chest. “I’m sorry me,” he says to the wrinkled front of his jimjilbang shirt. “I shouldn’t have thrown myself in an inferno room and deprived you of water. That was mean.” Tao snorts into laughter beside him and Baekhyun looks up, smiling at the sound. “How on earth can I make it up to you?” he continues, and Tao laughs again. 

“You should just rest for a while though,” Tao says finally, after he has quieted his laughter and looks at Baekhyun carefully. “You really did have us scared. Kris initially wanted to call the hospital but Chanyeol said if you woke up in a hospital you would probably freak out.”

Baekhyun hates hospitals. He swallows and squeezes the jelly packet in his fingers unconsciously. It squirts over his hands and he flinches. Tao looks down at it and his mouth quirks. 

“I don’t like hospitals,” Baekhyun says and does his best to ignore the violently orange jelly on his fingers. 

“Or people touching your neck,” Tao says, and his mouth is definitely quirking. “The list of things you don’t like seems long.”

“I like puppies,” Baekhyun offers and Tao snorts. “What do you like, Magic Hands?”

Tao tilts his head slightly to the side. “Shopping, martial arts, taking long walks on the beach, you know.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Universe,” Baekhyun says, and absently raises his hand to shake Tao’s.

Tao stares at the hand offered before looking back up at Baekhyun. “You know there’s still jelly all over that.”

Baekhyun’s stomach makes a violent jerk to the left and he flashes a grin. “I didn’t know if you wanted some too,” he says and tries to smile through his awkwardness. “I’m generous.”

Tao raises an eyebrow at him. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.” He smiles as Baekhyun shrugs and brings his hand to his mouth, sucking on the jelly left on his fingers and feeling his face heat. “How is the dehydration?”

“I’ll live,” Baekhyun says, and tastes the tang of the jelly on his tongue. His head is still pounding and he still feels obnoxiously weak. And that doesn’t even include the ache still through most of him from the massage. He fidgets slightly, remembering that he is currently half sitting on a massage table in a jimjilbang. “I should probably move though, now that I’m not delirious.”

Tao’s eyes widen slightly. “You don’t have to,” he says, leaning forward suddenly and Baekhyun raises an eyebrow. “Really, you should rest. I doubt that you’re really recovered and they aren’t really using the table and it’s probably fine so you can just lie down.” He snaps his mouth closed and presses his lips together firmly, mouth stretching in an awkward smile as his face suddenly tinges pink. 

Baekhyun keeps his eyebrow raised. “Okay,” he says and settles down a little, taking another long drink of sikhye and finding that it’s nearly empty. “Sorry, I imagine you have other things to do than take care of me.”

Tao’s mouth opens slightly and he mouths silences for a second. “Not really,” he finally manages. “Besides, I don’t really want to leave without Kris, and he’s…”

“Probably being pressured by Chanyeol to pet his hair,” Baekhyun finishes for Tao and the other coughs a laugh into his fist. “I don’t really think I’m that interesting to watch sleep.”

“I have a book,” Tao says and Baekhyun stares at him. 

Okay. 

Tao seems to realize this is a weird response and fidgets. A lot. “You want me to go?” The slight inflection at the end of the sentence makes Baekhyun realize that maybe, just maybe, the reason he originally thought he was dreaming and figured this was too good to be true, is because it really is that way. 

“Not really,” Baekhyun admits and allows himself to lie down fully, looking up at Tao and feeling oddly comfortable. “I don’t mind at all if you stay. Just, you know, don’t steal my pants or something in my sleep.”

Tao’s mouth quirks. “Steal your pants?”

“I know I have amazing thighs,” Baekhyun shrugs. “I can’t help that people just want to see more of them.”

Tao snorts laughter. “You do have amazing thighs,” he says and Baekhyun isn’t as ashamed of the blush which crawls over his own face as Tao’s own cheeks color bright red and he starts to cough into his hand again. He leans down swiftly and grabs the bag Chanyeol had brought from the floor. “Have another jelly?” he says, shoving a fresh packet at Baekhyun’s face.

“I’ll pass,” Baekhyun responds, smiling up at Tao who smiles feebly back. “But thanks.”

Tao fidgets for a moment before pushing himself to his feet. Baekhyun’s eyes follow him as he stands. Tao looks down and flashes a smile. “I’ll get you some more sikhye,” the other says. “You should try to rest.”

Baekhyun doesn’t say anything, just swallows as Tao walks from the room, a smile on his face. 

Baekhyun doesn’t realize he’s fallen asleep again until he wakes up, feeling significantly better, and blinks around the dim room. There is a full container of sikhye on the bed next to him and Tao is slumped in the chair near the bed, head dropped to his chest and clearly asleep. He stirs to consciousness as soon as Baekhyun moves to push himself up and greets Baekhyun with a brilliant smile. 

Baekhyun smiles back. 

“Feeling better?” Tao asks, stretching slightly in his seat as Baekhyun flexes his arms. 

“Much,” Baekhyun says and smiles, picking up the sikhye and taking a sip. It’s slightly warm. “Thanks.”

“I have to make up for breaking you somehow,” Tao says and scratches the side of his face, a sheepish expression on his face. 

“You didn’t actually break me,” Baekhyun says, playing with his fingers. 

“I’m glad,” Tao says. “Hungry?”

Baekhyun blinks, swallowing in thought and then wetting his lips with his tongue. They’re dry and cracked. He imagines he looks horrible. The sweat is still dried uncomfortably on his skin. “Kinda,” he admits. “Though I may use the baths before I really let myself be seen in public.”

“You look fine,” Tao tells him and Baekhyun snorts. 

“Liar.”

“Well, you don't look like you’re ready to grace the cat walk or anything,” Tao says and grins when Baekhyun bursts out laughing. “But you look fine. You’re in a jimjilbang. No one looks great. Well, except Kris.”

“Not anymore,” Baekhyun says, smirking. “At least, if Chanyeol has any say in it. Have you seen them?”

“They’ve been hovering around,” Tao says, and his eyes flit to the side. “I haven’t really seen any reason to bother them.”

Baekhyun nods. “I still think I’ll go shower. Maybe come out feeling more human and less like dried death.”

Tao’s eyes snap back to him. “Want someone to wash your back?” he asks and Baekhyun’s stomach jerks. 

Baekhyun does end up taking a shower. It is the most difficult shower he has ever taken. Tao does end up scrubbing his back for him. Tao, who is actually at least two heads taller than Baekhyun and who plays with soap suds like a five year old and has Baekhyun laughing as soap gets in his eyes. Baekhyun forgets for a minute that they’re naked and is violently reminded when Tao drops the water basin and yelps, bending over swiftly to grab it and Baekhyun gets a very good view. 

It’s very weird, because if this is a semi-first date, they sure have progressed quickly. Barely known each other a couple of hours, which included Tao getting intimate tactile knowledge of his… almost everything, and now they’re naked. If Baekhyun allows himself to think like that, they’ve basically raced through the first three months of dating in an afternoon. 

But Baekhyun doesn’t allow himself to think of that. Because it would ruin the way Tao’s face lights up in a smile right before Baekhyun dumps a pail of water over his head and leaves him sputtering. 

Tao insists Baekhyun eat something and ends up paying for the meal. He had tried to needle Baekhyun into paying by flashing a brief display of aegyo before discovering Baekhyun is impervious to cuteness due to the fact that he considers himself far more adorable than any amount of buing buing exhibited. Chanyeol essentially falls on top of them while Tao teaches Baekhyun a hand game from his hometown in China and ends up dragging them, with an amused looking Kris, off to the swimming pool. 

Chanyeol fusses for a few minutes about the water before Kris shoves him unceremoniously into the water, Chanyeol screaming high pitched as he plummets into the water and Baekhyun laughs before yelling himself as Tao gives him a similar treatment. He exerts his revenge by lunging out of the water and dragging Tao in by his ankle, eliciting a shriek from Tao and a bark of laughter from Kris. 

Tao turns to him later, a small smile playing on his lips as they lounge on the heated floors of the jimjilbang and nudges him in the side. “How are you feeling?”

“Clean,” Baekhyun replies, leaning back on his arms easily. 

“Does your everything still hurt?” Tao asks, letting his eyes drop down Baekhyun’s chest and over his body as a look of concern flashes through his eyes. 

Baekhyun chews at his bottom lip for a second before nodding his head slightly. “It’s better, and I’m pretty sure I’m fully rehydrated.” He flashes a brilliant smile at Tao, who smiles sideways. Chanyeol is sprawled out in every possible direction beside Kris, who is absently massaging the other’s hand. Baekhyun watches them for a moment. 

“Do you need anything?” Tao asks, keeping his eyes on Baekhyun as the smaller returns his gaze to the dark masseuse. 

Baekhyun wets slightly dry lips and clenches and unclenches his hand once. “Your number?” Baekhyun doesn’t know why it sounds like a question. 

Tao blinks at him before his mouth curves once more into that genuine smile Baekhyun has been getting used to for the past few hours. “On one condition,” he says, and Baekhyun frowns. 

“I didn’t realize we would be setting parameters around contact acquisition,” Baekhyun says, scratching briefly at his nose. 

Tao’s smile remains. “You also give me your number,” Tao says and Baekhyun bites the inside of his cheek. 

“Only if you give me a hand massage,” Baekhyun replies and Tao’s eyebrows raise high on his forehead. 

“I thought you don’t like people touching you,” Tao says, and his smile fades to perplexity. 

“Some people are exceptions to my rule,” Baekhyun says and feels warm spread through his stomach as Tao reaches to pick up his hand and runs those warm hands over his skin. 

“So this is okay?” Tao asks as his thumbs press into the heel of Baekhyun’s palm. 

Baekhyun’s skin tingles as Tao’s fingers are significantly more gentle than they had been earlier that day. “Yeah,” Baekhyun says, voice soft as Tao’s eyes trace his face and his own linger on the shadows below Tao’s eyes. “This is okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> The jimjilbang in this story is highly based on the Dragon Hill Spa in Yongsan for those wondering.


End file.
